


Greek Copper

by Aliena (ChokolatteJedi)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bronze Age, Gen, Greece, Homework, Origins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-04
Updated: 2004-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-26 21:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/288305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/Aliena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The invention of Greek Copper</p>
            </blockquote>





	Greek Copper

**Author's Note:**

> So I was in a history of chem class this year learning about the origin of science and all that fun stuff, when we had an interesting discussion of how copper was mixed with tin to make bronze and how that was initially discovered. I had my own theory on it, and being me, went home and wrote a story about it.

“Um, Mistress Samos?”

Irritated by the disruption, Nikina looked up from her reading and issued the servant a frosty glare. “Yes?”

“Well, uh, your copper Smith would like a word. Shall I send him away?”

“No, of course not!” as the servant backed his way out, Nikina cleared her expression, for she could not afford to antagonize her most educated and skilled craftsman. “Good Master Haephos, how are you this day?”

A third generation smith, Haephos looked the part; tall, muscled, and commanding. He wore a soot stained leather apron over his clothes, and there were traces of soot and healed burns on his hands and arms. “I am well, but your business may not be. Demands for copper products are coming in faster than we can make them. With half of the workers mining more copper ore constantly, I don’t have enough people to smelt the ore and create the merchandise.”

“Can’t you train new apprentices? I mean, it shouldn’t take that long to train them, provided they can read.”

“Teaching students to hammer does not take that long, it is true, but getting them to hammer _well_ is another matter. And to teach them to smelt…” he shrugged, “Yes, I have several students in training, but none will be good enough to make a difference any time soon.”

“Hmmm.” This really was a problem, Nikina thought, as her mind raced with possible solutions, “I can see your difficulties, and I will certainly investigate ways to remedy them as soon as possible.” Haephos bowed slightly at her polite dismissal and left. “But what can we do?” Nikina murmured, thoughts spinning.

Nikina’s husband had inherited her parent’s pottery business and had incorporated a small metal smithy. When he died, their son was only a few months old, leaving Nikina to handle the business in her infant son’s place. Recognizing the importance of metals, she had transformed the flagging pottery business into a flourishing metalworks, delivering goods as far as Egypt and China.

“If only we could take more people off the mining project and put them back to work in the smithy, but then we wouldn’t have enough workers there to bring in the quantity we need.” Nikina thought aloud, “If we hire more miners… but no, it takes almost as long to train them to find the right rocks. Really, we need to find an easier way to get the rocks. Maybe there is another locale with more accessible ore, so it would not take as long to-wait! Another locale!” Nikina called the servant back in, “Send for Master Hermaes right away. I need to speak with him.”

Within the hour the head of her trade network was being ushered into her office. “What can I do for you Nikina?” her brother-in-law asked.

“A few months ago, didn’t you tell me of a small farming village that had found a load of copper ore?”

“Well yes, one of my traders on the Silk Road stopped in this small village on his way back from China. The people were pretty poor, but one bragged about beautiful green and blue rocks he had found. My trader asked to see them and found that they looked like the copper ore he had seen here. He was shown the farm where they had been found and saw a great quantity of the ore. At the time we had too much ore closer to home to be very interested. Is that no longer the case?” Hermaes looked concerned.

“Oh no, we have plenty of ore here in Greece, just not enough people to work it.” Nikina reassured him, “Do you think these farmers would be willing to mine the ore for us? What do you think they would require as an incentive?”

“I’m sure they could be convinced to collect the ore for you. My trader said they were envious of our clay pottery, but only two or three could afford it. I think that if we left a potter there for a season or two to teach them they would be quite willing to collect your ore. Especially,” he added slyly, “since they don’t know the value of it and will assume we just like the colors. That is what you intended, is it not?”

Nikina gave her friend a startled look, and then laughed. “I can’t fool you for a minute, can I? Yes, I don’t think we need to tell them the value of the ore. They are only farmers and could never understand the importance of it anyway. Can you arrange everything at your end?”

“I shall do so immediately, that is, after I say hello to young Aphonnan and Sophrena. I’m afraid they spotted me when I came in and I could never live it down if I didn’t return.”

Nikina smiled at the reference to her children. “Yes, once Aphonnan turned three he became the Ruler of all he surveys and Sophrena is old enough to ensure that he gets it. Please tell Tanni and the children hello for me.”

“I shall.”

Nikina sent a messenger to Haephos asking him to spare one smith who was competent at finding ores and teaching others to do the same. She also dispatched a messenger to the local potter who created the pieces Hermaes’ traders carried, asking if he could spare one decent potter for a few seasons.

The next night, she met with the two craftsmen to explain their jobs. Hermaes reported the trading caravan ready to depart, and to days later Nikina found herself at the crossroads watching the caravan disappear over the Eastern horizon.

***

Nikina was in the gardens teaching Sophrena how to play the lute when Aphonnan ran up. “Momma, Theo Hermaes is here!” he announced, panting for breath.

“Thank you Apho,” Nikina hugged him, “Can you find a messenger and send for Master Haephos?” He nodded and ran off again. “Come ‘Rena, you can practice in your room until I am free again.”

“Its here!” Hermaes announced when Nikina entered her office. “My trader struck a deal with the village and dropped your craftsmen off on their way to China. When he stopped there on his way back here, he found a whole load waiting for him. The potter had a shop and kiln all set up and was already selling his first few batches. Your smith had a mound of green and blue rocks waiting for us.”

“Wonderful!” Nikina cried. She was pouring wine into three goblets when Haephos burst in.

“You have good news?” he asked, eying the wine.

“Yes. You are to recall all of your miners,” Nikina laughed at the shock on his face, “You will have them report to the trading post, where they will pick up a load of copper ore, fresh from Asia!”

He quickly sent off a messenger and then questioned Nikina and Hermaes about the load. Hermaes handed him a sample rock, which he eagerly examined. “It’s mixed with an unusual rock I haven’t seen before, but that should smelt off easily. However, it is undeniably copper.” He soon took his leave to organize his smiths to smelt and work the new copper. Hermaes also had to depart, to return home to his new baby. Nikina returned to ‘Rena’s music lesson.

Two days later, Haephos came into Nikina’s office caring a bulky object under his arm. “Something disturbing has happened,” he declared. “We smelted down some of that new copper and one of the apprentices started to shape a piece.” He set down a half shaped bowl in front of her. From inside it he drew out a smaller bowl and a chunk of metal. “These two are copper. If you compare them to the newer piece,” he indicated the uncompleted work, “You can see that they are a different material.”

“What?” Nikina grabbed the specimens and examined them closely. He was right; they were undoubtedly made of two different materials. “It’s very similar to the copper, almost the same.”

“Yes,” The smith agreed in a tired voice, “They are very similar, and the new substance is some sort of metal…”

“Is it still usable?”

“Oh, yes. Some of my men even think that it might prove to be better than plain copper. We think maybe that unidentified compound mixed with the ore is responsible. If it was another metal ore, it seems to have combined with the copper during the smelting process.”

“Maybe it is a metal found only in the Asian area,” Nikina mused, “So is it a large problem, or just a matter of naming a new metal mixture?”

“If you will have us proceed with this new mixture, we are willing, but you will have to advise your clients that they will no longer be receiving pure copper products.”

“I’ll worry about that, but you do say that this metal might be even better than copper?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then. If you return a few smiths to the mines to get strait copper for some of our purist customers and keep the rest making this mixture, then I’ll convince the others. We just need a catchy name.”

“Oriental Copper?” suggested Haephos, “A present for Zeus from the eastern barbarians.”

“Oriental Copper, I like that. But it is a little to long. Hmmm, I’ll think of a way to shorten it.”

“Then by your leave I’ll go back to my furnaces.”

“Of course,” Nikina sat for a long time trying to create a name for this new metal. “Orientcopper…Orinopper…Copent…Copal…Zeus…Zeusoricop…a barbarian gift… barborinoppzeus…borinopze…brinoze…bronze…brinze…bropze…pronze…bronze…” she rolled the foreign word around her tongue, “bron-ze, bron-ze, bronze. Yes, I like that. We’ll call it Bronze.”


End file.
